1984/Brave New World

We finished the assignment that we began on Monday, and discussed the responses.

Compare/Contrast

Students worked on the following assignment in class on Monday: Topic-Reproduction How do the different views of reproduction in 1984 and Brave New World compare and contrast? What fear is each author bringing to light? Which of these examples relates more to our culture? Explain. Which example would you prefer? Why? 1984-pgs 66-67 Katharine was a tall, fair-haired girl, very straight, with splendid movements. She had a bold, aquiline face, a face that one might have called noble until one discovered that there was as nearly as possible nothing behind it. Very early in her married life he had decided -- though perhaps it was only that he knew her more intimately than he knew most people -- that she had without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her. 'The human sound-track' he nicknamed her in his own mind. Yet he could have endured living with her if it had not been for just one thing -- sex. As soon as he touched her she seemed to wince and stiffen. To embrace her was like embracing a jointed wooden image. And what was strange was that even when she was clasping him against her he had the feeling that she was simultaneously pushing him away with all her strength. The rigidlty of her muscles managed to convey that impression. She would lie there with shut eyes, neither resisting nor co-operating but submitting. It was extraordinarily embarrassing, and, after a while, horrible. But even then he could have borne living with her if it had been agreed that they should remain celibate. But curiously enough it was Katharine who refused this. They must, she said, produce a child if they could. So the performance continued to happen, once a week quite regulariy, whenever it was not impossible. She even used to remind him of it in the morning, as something which had to be done that evening and which must not be forgotten. She had two names for it. One was 'making a baby', and the other was 'our duty to the Party' (yes, she had actually used that phrase). Quite soon he grew to have a feeling of positive dread when the appointed day came round. But luckily no child appeared, and in the end she agreed to give up trying, and soon afterwards they parted. Brave New World-pgs 5-6 Still leaning against the incubators he gave them, while the pencils scurried illegibly across the pages, a brief description of the modern fertilizing process; spoke first, of course, of its surgical introduction–"the operation undergone voluntarily for the good of Society, not to mention the fact that it carries a bonus amounting to six months' salary"; continued with some account of the technique for preserving the excised ovary alive and actively developing; passed on to a consideration of optimum temperature, salinity, viscosity; referred to the liquor in which the detached and ripened eggs were kept; and, leading his charges to the work tables, actually showed them how this liquor was drawn off from the test-tubes; how it was let out drop by drop onto the specially warmed slides of the microscopes; how the eggs which it contained were inspected for abnormalities, counted and transferred to a porous receptacle; how (and he now took them to watch the operation) this receptacle was immersed in a warm bouillon containing free-swimming spermatozoa–at a minimum concentration of one hundred thousand per cubic centimetre, he insisted; and how, after ten minutes, the container was lifted out of the liquor and its contents re-examined; how, if any of the eggs remained unfertilized, it was again immersed, and, if necessary, yet again; how the fertilized ova went back to the incubators; where the Alphas and Betas remained until definitely bottled; while the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons were brought out again, after only thirty-six hours, to undergo Bokanovsky's Process. "Bokanovsky's Process," repeated the Director, and the students underlined the words in their little notebooks. One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress. "Essentially," the D.H.C. concluded, "bokanovskification consists of a series of arrests of development. We check the normal growth and, paradoxically enough, the egg responds by budding."

Tiananmen Square

Today we looked at essays, articles, and videos from the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 and how revisionist history plays a part.

1984

Today we finished the documentary on North Korea and read a passage from 1984. The passage focuses on revisionist history. We will be looking at examples of this from history including the Tianenman Square Massacre.

1984

We have been viewing a documentary film on North Korea as an introduction to 1984. http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3

Compare/Contrast

In preparation for our next essay, which will be a compare/contrast essay, students will read excerpts from 1984 and Brave New World. Today we began by discussion views on invasion of privacy and the limits of the government/corporations/school system/etc.

The Things I Carry

100pt essay is due at the end of the period tomorrow.

The Things I Carry

Students are working the following assignment which is due Wednesday: Write your own “Things I Carry/Carried” essay. This needs to be something you carry both literally and figuratively. The more emotion you incorporate, the better it will be! Include the weight of some of the items you carry due to this figurative condition. While writing and editing, pay close attention to your use of voice and incorporate elements of figurative language. Your final draft must include at least: ______ five similes and/or metaphors, ______ two uses of personification, and ______ one example of hyperbole. You will have time to edit and add these elements in class. Complete the brainstorming worksheet to help you decide on a topic. Some example topics include: (This is just a brief list. The options are endless.) • “The Things I Carry as the Son of a Perfectionist” • “The Things I Carry as the Daughter of Breast Cancer Survivor” • “The Things I Carry as the Black Sheep of My Family” • “The Things I Carry as a Waitress” • “The Things I Carry as Wrestler”